10 Movies That Secretly Revealed Their Endings
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hello, everyone, it's Amy here, and I'm super excited to tell you that today's video is being sponsored by Just Watch,
00:06but we will have more on that later.
00:08You'd think it would be bad practice to reveal the entire plot and ending of your film before the thing had even got kicked off,
00:14but actually, it's a bit more common than you'd think.
00:17In plenty of famous and great films, hidden in plain sight is the entire plot laid out point by point.
00:23It's also nonchalant and obvious that we don't pay attention at the time,
00:27only realising when we get to the end of the film that we've known all along exactly how this would go.
00:32So, let's take a little look at some of them and see if there's any that you've missed.
00:36I'm Amy from WhatCulture, and here are 10 movies that secretly revealed their endings.
00:4110. The Prestige
00:43The twins were hiding in plain sight.
00:45Christopher Nolan's 2004 mystery-thriller centred around the rivalry of two magicians.
00:50Christian Bale stars as Alfred Borden, who faces off against Robert Angier,
00:55and the former friends soon become entangled in a bitter feud over who can invent the greatest on-stage illusion.
01:01Like the film's protagonists, the narrative opts for misdirection whilst leaving clues to its deception in plain sight.
01:07Alfred Borden's most tantalising trick involves teleporting himself from one side of the stage to the other,
01:12and it's eventually revealed that, like many of his tricks, Borden achieved this only because he had a secret twin brother.
01:18Nolan left the clues to this reveal throughout the whole movie.
01:21During the opening sequence, a passage is read from Borden's diary, stating
01:25"...we are two young men at the start of a great career, two young men dedicated to an illusion."
01:30The way this is framed leads the audience to believe that it's in regards to Alfred and his rival Robert,
01:35but it is in fact referring to the other Borden brother.
01:38The twins shared absolutely everything, even a wife.
01:41Bear in mind, she didn't know this was happening, so that raises all sorts of ethical issues,
01:45but, you know, we don't have time for that right now.
01:48In several scenes, she unknowingly makes reference to the trickery,
01:51noting that when Borden says, I love you, he doesn't always seem to mean it.
01:55Indeed, only one of the brothers was actually truly in love with her,
01:58which is actually kind of miserably sad, if you think about it.
02:019. Twelve Monkeys
02:03The beginning was the end.
02:05Twelve Monkeys is one of Terry Gilliam's most bizarre films.
02:08Set in 2035, the human race is living underground after a deadly virus has made the surface inhospitable.
02:14James Cole, played by Bruce Willis, is sent back in time in an attempt to stop the scientist
02:19who created the virus from doing so.
02:21So, it's sort of like Terminator 2 meets Contagion.
02:24Early on, the audience is shown Cole as a young boy, witnessing a man being gunned down at the airport.
02:29And, from the outset of the film, Cole is haunted by a recurring dream of the incident.
02:33Cole travels back in time throughout the course of the movie,
02:36at one point being incarcerated in an insane asylum along with a crazed environmentalist,
02:40Geoffrey Goines.
02:42Cole explains to Goines that he must save the human race from a deadly virus
02:46which would return the planet to the animals.
02:48And this inadvertently encourages Goines to steal a virus from his father,
02:51who happens to be a virologist.
02:53As the narrative plays out, it becomes clear that Cole being sent back in time
02:57is the trigger that leads to the downfall of humanity.
02:59Towards the end of the movie, Cole tries to stop one of Goines' associates
03:03from boarding a plane and releasing the virus around the globe.
03:06However, his plan fails when he's gunned down.
03:09That sound familiar?
03:10Man being gunned down in an airport?
03:12It's here that it's revealed that Cole's recurring nightmare was actually him witnessing his own death.
03:17And the movie ends with pretty much the same scene it began with,
03:20only from a different angle.
03:228. Sean of the Dead
03:24Ed lays out the whole plot.
03:26The 2004 Zomromcom Sean of the Dead came out at a time when zombie flicks were all the rage.
03:32But with its perfect comedy edge, it was quite unlike any others on the scene at the time.
03:36The film follows deadbeat Sean,
03:38who, until the events of the movie, has been unconsciously just coasting through life.
03:42Early on, Sean gets the boot from his girlfriend for being such a braindead loser,
03:47and his only solution is to get slaughtered down the pub with his equally deadbeat friend, Ed.
03:51In a scene which doesn't appear to have much significance to the overall plot,
03:55Ed tries to comfort his friend with a plan to get over his ex.
03:58He starts by saying,
03:59we'll have a bloody Mary first thing,
04:01have a bite at the king's head,
04:02couple at the little princess,
04:04stagger back here, and then bang!
04:05Back at the bar for shots!
04:06This seemingly insignificant line of dialogue actually outlines exactly what's about to take place.
04:12The next morning, the two characters kill a zombie named Mary.
04:15Then, they witness Sean's stepdad get bitten in the side of the head,
04:18Sean climbs a tower block to rescue his girlfriend, making her the little princess,
04:22and they all imitate zombies to reach the safety of a bar,
04:25where they're then eventually saved when the military turns up to shoot the undead hordes.
04:29The clever bits of wordplay leaving you to work it out in hindsight makes this all the more enjoyable.
04:35Before we continue though, I just want to take a quick moment to thank Just Watch for sponsoring this video,
04:39and to tell you guys a little bit more about why we love them so much.
04:43In short, they're the all-in-one streaming service your life has been crying out for.
04:48No more skipping between all the different services, trying to find something you want to watch.
04:52Instead, Just Watch is integrated with all your favourites,
04:55so you can find anything your heart desires from one centralised place.
04:58We're talking Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Sky, and dozens upon dozens more.
05:04We can't believe the service didn't exist sooner, and you won't believe it's free.
05:09Yep, that's right, it is a free interface that's available on your mobile, tablet, PC, your Fire Stick, pretty much anywhere.
05:16It's accessible from over a hundred countries,
05:18and provides you with one easy-to-use portal to all of the services you're subscribed to,
05:23allowing you to access everything from one place, and speed up that search process.
05:28Maybe you're wanting to find where you can watch a super-hyped TV show, like Euphoria,
05:32or perhaps something more niche, like a documentary feature film a friend once recommended to you.
05:36You can download Just Watch for free from the link in the description,
05:40and see for yourselves why it changed our lives here at WhatCulture.
05:44But in the meantime, let's get back to that video.
05:50The central plot of the film revolves around a couple of moles,
05:53one infiltrating the mob, and one infiltrating the police department,
05:57both trying to uncover one another's identity.
05:59After all the ups and downs, and plot hills and valleys,
06:02almost everyone dies apart from Mark Wahlberg,
06:05who, despite having a fairly small role, walks away as the hero.
06:08And there, that's the movie.
06:10All of this happens in the closing few moments of the film.
06:12Just as we think the protagonist, played by DiCaprio, has everything nicely wrapped up,
06:17boom, bullet to the forehead.
06:19You may think that the movie takes you on a ride, and surprises you at every turn.
06:23Well, you maybe wouldn't think the same if you were in on a little secret.
06:26Scorsese made it clear who would die by the end of this story by having the doomed characters,
06:31marked with an X at various points throughout the film.
06:33For example, DiCaprio is shown framed by giant X's during a scene in an airport terminal.
06:38The elevator in which he's killed is also marked by a crude X behind him.
06:42In fact, the same is true for every other character who dies.
06:45And a little bit of bonus knowledge, Scorsese's decision to include this,
06:49was an homage to the 1932 American pre-code gangster movie, Scarface.
06:546. The Usual Suspects
06:56All the Sosa clues.
06:58The Usual Suspects is a classic misdirection drama which hides the truth in plain sight.
07:03The narrative is told in flashbacks by a character nicknamed Verbal.
07:07He recounts to a police detective how he and his associates were recruited to do a job
07:11by a sinister and mysterious crime lord called Kaiser Sosa.
07:15After telling the cops his story, Verbal's free to go.
07:18But the detective soon realises that half the details were taken from artefacts littered around his office,
07:23and it's then strongly implied that Verbal was Kaiser Sosa the entire time and simply inventing half the story.
07:29There are several clues hinting at this revelation throughout the movie.
07:32Firstly, Verbal can be seen looking for inspiration around the detective's office as he invents his tale.
07:37Secondly, in an earlier scene where Kaiser Sosa has his face hidden,
07:41he's shown using a golden lighter and wearing a golden watch,
07:44which we then see again on Verbal in a later scene.
07:47He even goes on to pick up the lighter and watch when he's released from police custody.
07:51But the most glaring giveaway was the name Kaiser Sosa itself.
07:55The surname Sosa is derived from a Turkish phrase which means talk too much,
07:59literally translating to Verbal.
08:01The character's name was a giveaway from the start.
08:04Between this and Darth Vader, us audiences are not getting a good rap for being able to decode names.
08:12Chief Inspectors can make people disappear.
08:15Hot Fuzz is the second instalment of Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy.
08:19Rather than duking it out with the undead, however,
08:21Simon Pegg and Nick Frost unearth a sinister conspiracy in a picturesque English village.
08:27Like Shaun of the Dead, the movie reveals its own plot early on,
08:30in a scene in which Pegg's character inquires to the Metropolitan Police Force
08:33as to why he's being trotted off out of the big city and into the quiet countryside.
08:38They tell him that, essentially, it's because he's making everyone else look bad with how good he is at his job.
08:43And when he tries to protest, stating that you can't just make people disappear,
08:48the Chief Inspector looks right back at him and says,
08:50Yes, I can. I'm the Chief Inspector.
08:52It turns out that this is perfect foreshadowing of the behaviour of another Chief Inspector later in the film,
08:58who quite literally makes people he doesn't like disappear.
09:01Of course, it plays out that Pegg's time in the country is far from the quiet experience he was expecting.
09:06A number of disappearances and strange killings are eventually revealed to be the work of Chief Inspector Frank Butterman.
09:12Calling back to the earlier quote, he admits to making people disappear,
09:15all because they were ruining the villagers' aesthetic.
09:184. The Shawshank Redemption
09:20A pipe dream.
09:21One of the most cherished Stephen King adaptations has to be the prison escape drama The Shawshank Redemption.
09:27The film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a man falsely convicted of murder,
09:31and his trials and tribulations throughout his sentence.
09:34Andy is put through all manner of hardships whilst in prison,
09:37but eventually he finds his way to salvation by tunnelling out of his cell and crawling through 500 yards of sewage,
09:43all to emerge to the sweet smell of freedom.
09:45There are two incidents which not only foreshadow the ending of the movie,
09:49but spell out exactly how Andy manages to make his escape.
09:52Firstly, in a scene where Andy and friend Red are discussing freedom,
09:56Red tells Andy to forget about his shitty pipe dream.
09:59And then, sure enough, Andy fulfils his dream of freedom by crawling through 500 yards of shit.
10:04In another scene, in which Andy has his room shaken down, the Warden comments on Andy's Bible.
10:09The two discuss their favourite passages before the Warden hands the book back, stating,
10:13Salvation lies within.
10:15Well, unbeknownst to the Warden, Andy was hiding a tiny rock hammer in the hollowed-out pages of the book,
10:20the tool which he later uses to tunnel out of his cell.
10:23So yeah, Andy's salvation was literally hiding within the Bible.
10:263. Saving Private Ryan
10:29The Airborne Division
10:30Steven Spielberg's epic war tale, Saving Private Ryan,
10:33recounts the acts of a squad of American Army Rangers in the days following the 1944 invasion of Normandy.
10:39Tom Hanks stars as Captain Miller,
10:41the man tasked with leading the Rangers on a mission to rescue a certain member of the American Airborne,
10:45the titular Private Ryan.
10:47The movie opens with a short sequence showing an old veteran wandering around a cemetery.
10:51The veteran heads to a specific grave, but the camera doesn't reveal the name engraved on it.
10:55Instead, it focuses on the veteran's face as he becomes overcome with grief.
10:59The frame then cuts to the beaches of Normandy, and the first face we see is that of Captain Miller.
11:04The nature of the transition leads the audience to believe that the elderly man is indeed Captain Miller,
11:09remembering his days as a soldier.
11:11And once we find out Miller's mission is to rescue a young paratrooper,
11:14the audience immediately thinks that he must have failed his task,
11:17leaving him grieving the death of Ryan well into his old age.
11:20The movie feels as though it's moving towards a moment of failure,
11:23but lo and behold, Miller winds up giving his life to save Private Ryan.
11:27It's then that the old man is revealed to be Ryan himself,
11:30but if we had noticed one little detail on his clothing, then we would have known that from the start.
11:35It was a clever bit of misdirection, but for anyone who spotted the old man's Airborne badge,
11:40it would have been obvious that he was Ryan all along.
11:46David Fincher's Fight Club has become such an institution in pop culture
11:50that it's hard to believe it was originally poorly received.
11:53It was panned for its hyper-bravado and criticised for seeming to incite violence.
11:57Now, however, it's considered a cult classic.
12:00It's a coming-of-age movie of sorts, if that age happens to be 30,
12:04speaking to people who suddenly wake up and realise that they've spent their 20s living someone else's life.
12:09Throughout the movie, the narrator tells the story of how his life was forever changed when he met Tyler Durden.
12:14Durden represents everything the narrator isn't.
12:17He's cool, he's confident, he's good-looking, and most importantly, he doesn't seem shackled by society.
12:22The big reveal?
12:23Durden was a figment of the narrator's imagination, who was adopting the character to escape his own life.
12:29Fincher laced clues to this reveal throughout the movie,
12:31and watching back, it's far more obvious than it was on first viewing.
12:35The most obvious reveal is when the narrator is seen beating himself up in the boss's office.
12:39He states,
12:43whilst the visuals show just him beating himself up.
12:46It's a pretty glaring clue that his first fight with Tyler was actually with himself,
12:51and thus they're the same person.
12:53Nightmare Alley. How a Geek is Made.
12:56Guillermo del Toro's latest movie tells the story of Stanton Stan Carlyle,
13:01a morally bankrupt drifter whose traumatic past comes back to haunt him.
13:05Stan finds work at a local carnival,
13:07and at a geek show, he's shocked when witnessing a drunk bite the head off of a live chicken to entertain the crowd.
13:13For a significant section of the movie, Stan is portrayed as a man with a drive to succeed.
13:17A teetotaler, thanks to his abusive, alcoholic father putting him off for life,
13:22he uses his clear head to hoodwink clients and colleagues, eventually becoming a successful mentalist.
13:27Much of the movie foreshadows Stan's own fall into damnation, however,
13:31and at one point, Stan is told how someone is manipulated into becoming a geek.
13:35First, they lure the victim in with booze, assuring them that the job is temporary,
13:39and then they just get tricked into staying.
13:41This is mirrored in the way Stan is later manipulated by Lilith Ritter,
13:45who convinces him to drink alcohol, feigns a caring relationship,
13:48and persuades him to take part in a con before betraying him.
13:51At the end of the movie, Stan, now an alcoholic and a bum, requests a job at a carnival,
13:56but what he's offered is a drink and temporary work as a geek.
13:59Realising he's been conned, he laughs and says,
14:02I was born for it,
14:03recognising he's been a geek his whole life.
14:05And with that, we've reached the end of this list of 10 Movies That Secretly Revealed Their Endings.
14:10If you can think of any more you would have put on this list, then let us know in the comments down below,
14:14and remember to check out WhatCulture for more lists and articles like this every single day.
14:19I've been Amy from WhatCulture, and I'll catch you next time.
14:21Bye.